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For the past two years Flight Centre has placed increasing emphasis on IT and the enhancement of its telecommunications capacity. As a specialist travel agency, Flight Centre guarantees the lowest airfares to its customers. The company launched in South Africa in 1995 in Johannesburg and has since grown to 130 outlets in all nine provinces.
Given Flight Centre’s unique IT needs and dependency on fast network access it had to choose carefully when picking an Internet service provider to achieve its vision. Though the actual products offered were important, it allocated top priority to the quality of client services and the potential for relationship-building when making its decision in a provider.
Janine Salame, executive GM at Flight Centre South Africa, says the company needed a partner that would take time to understand its needs. “When picking a service provider we looked at who could advance the Flight Centre vision from a service aspect, but at the same time we also looked for a partner we could build a strong relationship with,” she says. “In order to achieve that we needed a service provider who could understand our culture and fit into the way we do business.”
In May last year it entered into discussions with MTN Business and by October the first installations began. Flight Centre now makes use of MTN Business’s wide area network (WAN) for its connectivity.
Salame says having a dedicated MTN Business key account manager in charge of the service has proven to be a vital asset for Flight Centre’s operations. “All providers have key account managers, but at MTN Business they just take the service to the next level. We get the sense we’re not just another client and that our key account manager is solely dedicated to providing what we need.”
Flight Centre refers to the way MTN Business has handled change management within the network as a particular strength of the provider. “There’s no red tape in terms of decision-making: with MTN Business there’s a direct and open channel of communication that allows us to solve problems with the network very quickly – sometimes within hours,” says Salame.
With close to 170 partner businesses and 820 staff members (99% being reliant on technology), Flight Centre is particularly dependent on the efficiency of its IT services. “If we lose Internet access we can’t sell travel packages – and we essentially lose revenue by the minute,” Salame says. “So for us it’s critical to have a technology partner close at hand who understands what our requirements are.”
In one instance Flight Centre was encountering issues with bandwidth in a mall where one of its outlets was located. The problem was due to external factors to which MTN Business had to find an internal solution. “With previous service providers we sometimes had to wait weeks for problems like that to be solved, but with MTN Business the turnaround time in terms of solutions consistently exceeds our expectations,” says Salame.
Flight Centre also cites the close relationship between its own IT department and MTN Business as a key enabler for efficiency and seamless problem-solving within the network. As opposed to a partnership that only exists at management level, the Flight Centre and MTN Business relationship extends further to staff members and key IT professionals.
Salame says the close working relationship between them can be attributed to similar business cultures and a shared commitment to growth and innovation.
While Flight Centre currently uses MTN Business’s Wide Area Network service it’s exploring ways to develop the relatively new partnership and streamline its IT requirements. “Ideally, we’d like to consolidate our telecoms needs, but that depends on cost-savings and the development of our relationship with MTN Business moving forward,” says Salame.
Given Flight Centre’s unique IT needs and dependency on fast network access it had to choose carefully when picking an Internet service provider to achieve its vision. Though the actual products offered were important, it allocated top priority to the quality of client services and the potential for relationship-building when making its decision in a provider.
Janine Salame, executive GM at Flight Centre South Africa, says the company needed a partner that would take time to understand its needs. “When picking a service provider we looked at who could advance the Flight Centre vision from a service aspect, but at the same time we also looked for a partner we could build a strong relationship with,” she says. “In order to achieve that we needed a service provider who could understand our culture and fit into the way we do business.”
In May last year it entered into discussions with MTN Business and by October the first installations began. Flight Centre now makes use of MTN Business’s wide area network (WAN) for its connectivity.
Salame says having a dedicated MTN Business key account manager in charge of the service has proven to be a vital asset for Flight Centre’s operations. “All providers have key account managers, but at MTN Business they just take the service to the next level. We get the sense we’re not just another client and that our key account manager is solely dedicated to providing what we need.”
Flight Centre refers to the way MTN Business has handled change management within the network as a particular strength of the provider. “There’s no red tape in terms of decision-making: with MTN Business there’s a direct and open channel of communication that allows us to solve problems with the network very quickly – sometimes within hours,” says Salame.
With close to 170 partner businesses and 820 staff members (99% being reliant on technology), Flight Centre is particularly dependent on the efficiency of its IT services. “If we lose Internet access we can’t sell travel packages – and we essentially lose revenue by the minute,” Salame says. “So for us it’s critical to have a technology partner close at hand who understands what our requirements are.”
In one instance Flight Centre was encountering issues with bandwidth in a mall where one of its outlets was located. The problem was due to external factors to which MTN Business had to find an internal solution. “With previous service providers we sometimes had to wait weeks for problems like that to be solved, but with MTN Business the turnaround time in terms of solutions consistently exceeds our expectations,” says Salame.
Flight Centre also cites the close relationship between its own IT department and MTN Business as a key enabler for efficiency and seamless problem-solving within the network. As opposed to a partnership that only exists at management level, the Flight Centre and MTN Business relationship extends further to staff members and key IT professionals.
Salame says the close working relationship between them can be attributed to similar business cultures and a shared commitment to growth and innovation.
While Flight Centre currently uses MTN Business’s Wide Area Network service it’s exploring ways to develop the relatively new partnership and streamline its IT requirements. “Ideally, we’d like to consolidate our telecoms needs, but that depends on cost-savings and the development of our relationship with MTN Business moving forward,” says Salame.
